25 Excellent Usability/UX Articles and Resources
Published on Mar 30, 2007 (updated Aug 17, 2024), filed under design, usability. (Share this post, e.g., on Mastodon or on Bluesky.)
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Today I thought I’d share some of the most valuable usability and user experience articles and resources I know, in a somewhat wild mix. Since there’s presumably enough to read and talk about later, please welcome a few great articles and research papers you hopefully enjoy as much as I do:
- Apple: User Experience Guides
- Calabria: An Introduction to Personas and How to Create Them
- Cameron: Why People Don’t Read Online and What to Do About It
- Crescimanno: Sensible Forms: A Form Usability Checklist
- Garrett: The Elements of User Experience (PDF, 17Â KB)
- Hadley: Clean, Cutting-Edge UI Design Cuts McAfee’s Support Calls by 90%
- Hawdale: The Vision of Good User Experience (PDF, 1,115Â KB)
- Knemeyer: Completely Rethinking the Web
- Merholz: The Lure of the Single Click
- Merholz: User Experience Is a Quality, Not a Discipline
- Morville: User Experience Design
- Perfetti: Reassuring Users with Inukshuk Content
- Tullis et al.: A Study of Website Navigation Methods
- Usability.gov: Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines (PDF, 161,101Â KB)
- UsabilityNet: International Standards for HCI and Usability
- Wroblewski: The Sweet Spot for Buying
- W3C WAI: Notes on User Centered Design Process (UCD)
- WebSiteOptimization.com: Clickstream Study Reveals Dynamic Web
In case you miss people, organizations, or other things concerning the above topics, here are a few more excellent sites where you’ll find interesting material and good advice:
- Cooper, Alan
- Human Factors International
- Hurst, Mark
- Knemeyer, Dirk
- Nielsen, Jakob
- Norman, Donald
- Tognazzini, Bruce
- User Interface Engineering
- UXmatters
No matter that these are 27 resources, what are you favorites of both these and your own bookmarks?
About Me
I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager at various companies, including Google; I’m an open-source developer and a contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG); and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.
I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also with respect to politics and philosophy. Here on meiert.com I talk about some of my experiences and perspectives. (Please share feedback—interpret charitably, keep it friendly, but do be critical.)